San Francisco a surprisingly good dating city

If you’re going to leave your heart anywhere, San Francisco’s a pretty good place to do it.

So says The Daily Beast in its new list “Best Cities to Find a Date in 2012” – featuring San Francisco in the No. 8 spot. The news web-site ranked the top 25 American cities based on four components: census data on the percentage of males and females over 15 who are single and the percentage of the total population that’s single; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on the average salary for singles and a city’s cost of living; a well-being index to gauge residents’ physical and mental health; and the popularity in any given city of five well-known on-line dating sites.

(It’s unclear how San Francisco’s high percentage of gay men could skew the results for lovelorn ladies, but nobody said these silly lists were perfect. They’re just fun to write about.)

Sixty-one percent of San Francisco’s men and women are single, according to the list. Singles make a median salary here of $58,887. An average movie ticket costs $10.70. And our well-being score is 69.1 out of 100.

Atlanta took the top place for dating, followed by Gainesville, Florida and Lincoln, Nebraska. San Jose took the 25th spot.

For inspiration for date-seeking San Franciscans, we suggest watching this season’s “The Bachelor,” much of which is set right here – including today’s episode which apparently features the single Ben Flajnik skiing down a makeshift snow patch with a bunch of women in bikinis. Because, you know, that happens all the time here. And if there’s any show that fosters love, it’s “The Bachelor.”